In a continually changing and increasingly demanding social environment, educators are faced with the challenge of keeping up with those changes as they prepare students for life in a modern society.

Three groups of kindergarten and secondary school teachers have been recognised with the Chief Executive’s Award for Teaching Excellence for implementing effective teaching practices and for their dedication to the profession.

During one class, the students were shown a picture book about an elephant with rainbow-coloured, patchwork skin. The children designed their own elephants and played different musical rhythms for their elephants’ parade. Through such an enjoyable medium, the youngsters were able to enhance their artistic, musical and communication skills.

Teacher, Polly Wong noticed that some students who were usually shy and passive in class, were brought out of their shell through these activities.

Cultivating sporting prowess

For some older students at The Hong Kong Taoist Association Ching Chung Secondary School, physical education class was not high up on their list of priorities - that is, until their school teams started winning competitions.

Teacher, Ma Ka-chun noted some of his students were already well-trained and joined the badminton or basketball teams, while other students believed they were not good enough to play sports, as a result of having a past negative experience of being teased or rejected by others.

In a bid to encourage such kids to enjoy sport, Mr Ma introduced some less conventional activities to them such as dodgebee. Originating from Taiwan, it combines dodgeball and frisbee. Dodgebee was a completely new experience for the students who were all beginners and had to learn the skills to play it together. This gradually helped to boost their confidence.

“I have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder which made me feel inferior in the learning environment. When I started playing dodgebee, I found I was better at it than I thought I would be,” said student Anson Lai.

Tech teaching

A smart water filter with a water quality monitoring function, a smart pillow that can improve sleep, and a gas detector - all of these ingenious devices were invented by youngsters at HKTA The Yuen Yuen Institute No.1 Secondary School. The school uses Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics or STEM teaching to train its students to integrate what they have learnt in the classroom into real life.

“Technology is not only about programming a computer. You need knowledge of different areas to invent something,” said Principal Willy Kan.

A common misconception about STEM education is that students sit in front of a computer all day, but they do venture out of the classroom. Some of the students were taught how to use panoramic cameras and virtual reality to showcase the different landmarks at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus. Through shooting footage, video editing, writing scripts and recording voice overs, they acquired a different set of skills.

Teacher, Eric Kwan noted the trend of using technology as a teaching tool means educators also need to update their skills and knowledge to keep up. He added the satisfaction of seeing the students improve over time, gives teachers the best motivation to keep learning too.